Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Error

First John reveals that there is a spirit of truth and a spirit of error. How do we determine which is which? In First John chapter four, he gives us a test to find out.

Good morning, Church! Would you mind standing with me and taking out your Bibles? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the New Testament book of First John, slowly and steadily moving through it. It's right near the end of your Bible. Open to the very last book, Revelation, and turn to the left; you'll find First John, Second John, and Third John.

First John chapter four is where we are at. I'm glad to be back with you this week. Last week, I had a bit of a sore throat, and thankfully, my shorter, better-looking counterpart was here too. If you have any questions as we go through the Scriptures today, make sure you text those into the phone number up on the screen. Pastor Mark and I will record the podcast this week, and you can find that at the Questions Podcast dot com. We love your questions; they are really great!

Now, in First John chapter four, verse one, John says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." By this, you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world; therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this, we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.

Jesus, you promised before you went to the cross that you would give us the...

The Spirit of Truth guides us into all truth and teaches us all things. Holy Spirit, we pray that you do just that today. We certainly are living in a time of competing views, ideas, and ideologies. I pray, God, that you would give us wisdom and discernment to understand what is real and what is true. Lord, may we hold tightly to that truth, and by the truth of your Word, may our lives be transformed in a way that brings honor and glory to you. Additionally, Lord, may we shine brightly in a dark world. So, God, work in us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You may be seated.

I think you would probably agree that we are living in an amazing time in history. We have a level of wealth and well-being that is truly extraordinary. This is not just the case here in the U.S. or in the West; when you look at the data and statistics about wealth and well-being throughout the world, it is phenomenal to see what has happened, especially in the last 50 years. There has been a significant increase globally.

I have long been a student of history, and in my studies, I’m not sure that I would choose to live in a different time. Sometimes, we have a way of romanticizing certain periods, thinking it would be glorious to live during those times. However, in light of the modern amenities of science, technology, medicine, and markets, I can't imagine a better time to be alive.

One of the drawbacks, and I think as soon as I say it, you will all agree, is that we are bombarded by massive amounts of information constantly. We cannot fully process it. It is coming at us so much all the time that it is hard to even quantify the astounding amount of data and information we receive. I was looking at some of the statistics on this.

This week, there are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. Just try to put your mind around that: 300 hours of video every minute that is uploaded to YouTube. Ninety-five million pictures will be uploaded to Instagram today. Sixty-three thousand Google searches happen per second, and 500 million tweets are sent daily, about half of those from our President.

As a result of this constant flow of information, we have had to change the way we interact with it because we cannot process all of it at the same time. This is a big part of the reason why the social media platforms available to us are so successful. Things like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are successful because they allow us to quickly look at a piece of data and, in a fraction of a second, our brains categorize whether or not it is valuable to us in that moment. We swipe on by and go to the next thing. However, we cannot fully process everything that is coming at us, and it has created a horrible feedback loop.

We have the ability to create so much data so quickly and broadcast it globally so fast that the amount of data increases exponentially. There is no way we can fully grasp and understand everything that is constantly coming at us. Some researchers say that, as a result of this, our attention span has been severely affected. I am not entirely sure that our attention span has been entirely affected. The reason I say that is that people will go and watch three hour-long movies and binge-watch eight hours of a Netflix series. Clearly, we have the ability to engage with something for a long period of time.

It is not necessarily true that our attention span has been severely affected; it is just that we cannot process all the data that is coming at us at any given time. Another problem with this is that we are not really sure what information we can trust. We have entered a new era of determining what is real and what is fake news, and it is not going to get any better. In fact, everything that is beginning to come into the pipeline is going to make it a lot more difficult to determine what is genuine and what is not, what is true and what is false.

Counterfeit phenomena, aided by machine learning and artificial intelligence, include something known as deep fakes. A deep fake is essentially a video, audio, or image that has been altered through these technologies to make it appear as though it is something it is not. One of the ramifications of this is that videos can be produced that look like a world leader, but it is not that leader saying something they did not actually say. We are approaching a point where these alterations are becoming indistinguishable from reality.

As countermeasures are developed, the technology continues to improve, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is false. Counterfeits are becoming more challenging to discern, and these counterfeits can be very dangerous. This is precisely what John addresses in his letter, particularly in the section we have been exploring over the past several weeks. Counterfeits are dangerous, and we need to become adept at discerning and discriminating between what is real and what is fake.

John was addressing similar issues 2,000 years ago. In his time, he observed a counterfeit worldview that bore similarities to the genuine article. A counterfeit is only a counterfeit because it resembles the authentic version. During John's era, there was a counterfeit gospel and counterfeit truths—what we would now refer to as heresy—that began to confront the church. This issue only worsened after his death. John wrote this letter around the year 90 or 95 A.D., towards the end of the first century. By the second century, these counterfeits became a significant problem, prompting the church to address them through various ecumenical councils, such as the Nicene Council, to identify what is true and what is false.

In this passage, John contrasts true and false followers of God. He wrote in 1 John 3:24, which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. If we look back one verse to 1 John 4:1, we see that John emphasizes the importance of obedience. He states, "Now he who keeps God's commandments abides in God, and God in that person. By this, we know that He, God, abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given to us."

Readers, both then and now, can discern and know what is true, and that God is in us. The Spirit of God is in us by the Spirit whom God has given to us. In saying this, in First John 3:24, John introduces a new concept, or maybe we should say a new character: the Spirit who dwells in us. In most English translations, the word "Spirit" is capitalized because we are talking about the Holy Spirit.

Now, bringing the discussion of the Spirit into this adds a new layer of complexity for us to deal with. Just as in our time, people in John's day, 2,000 years ago, had differing views about spirits. Every single person that you encounter will have a differing view on what a spirit is. Therefore, John needs to give some clarification about what he is talking about. This is what First John 4:1 addresses.

In First John 4:1, John writes, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit." We have the Spirit who dwells in us, as mentioned in verse 24 of chapter 3, but he warns us not to believe every spirit. Why? Because there are counterfeits in this world. He is contrasting true and false believers. John says to test the spirits to see whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. He corresponds false teachers to these many deceiving spirits that are in the world.

In bringing this clarification, John informs us, point number one on your outline: there are deceiving spirits in the world. John wanted his readers, Christians of the first century, to understand this truth, and it is imperative that we, living 20 centuries later, understand this truth as well. There are deceiving spirits in the world. In revealing this, John informs us that there is more to reality than we can see. There is more to reality than just what we can interact with according to our senses—what we can see, what we can hear, what we can touch, what we can smell, and what we can taste. There is more to reality than what we can see.

Now, to adequately deal with this truth that John is presenting...

We need to understand what this meant to the original readers who would have read this 2,000 years ago. We also need to read it in the context of our day. What does it mean for us today?

In John's day, 2,000 years ago, people did not have a problem with the proposition that there is more to reality than what we can see. They believed in a spiritual dimension and recognized what we would call the supernatural or metaphysical as being a reality in the cosmos we live in. This perspective is very different from what you will encounter with many people in modern Western culture. However, 2,000 years ago, that was the prevailing view.

For many of the people John was interacting with, the growing view that was affecting Christians was something we now call Gnosticism. During that time, it was not identified as Gnosticism; it was simply recognized by the teachers who were beginning to promulgate this view. Under the basic Gnostic view, the idea was that there is a material world, which we can interact with through our senses, and then there is an immaterial world, a spiritual world. According to the Gnostic view, the material world is evil, and the spiritual world is good. The material world is defiled, but the spiritual world is pure. The two do not meet because there is a bifurcation between them: one is evil, and the other is good and pure.

There are a couple of problems with this view as it relates to what John believed and what the Scriptures teach. The first problem is that it does not align with the reality of divine revelation. The Scriptures do reveal that there is a metaphysical, immaterial spiritual world and a physical world, but they do not reveal that the spiritual world is good and pure while the material world is not. There are unclean, deceiving things in the spiritual realm, which is exactly what John is saying here: do not trust every spirit. Why? Because there are false spirits.

The second problem with the view that the material world is bad and the spiritual world is good is that it conflicts with the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. What is that? It is the belief that God, who is Spirit, came to this physical world in the form of a human body. Therefore, this Gnostic view has a significant problem.

With the Incarnation, we will talk more about that as we go through this. John, in this passage, is trying to help Christians of his day and of our day ultimately to discern and discriminate between dangerous counterfeits, between truth and error. Though people in our day don't understand the world in the same way that people in John's day did, this is still helpful for us.

John reveals that there is more to reality than what we can see or perceive with our senses. People in our day are skeptical of this idea. Twenty-first-century Westerners see the world through a materialistic, naturalistic lens, and they are skeptical of anything that is metaphysical or supernatural. They immediately put up the skeptic's wall, claiming that it can't possibly be true because we can't test it empirically.

The culture we live in has been influenced by a scientistic worldview over the last 500 years, which leads many to disbelieve anything that exists outside of the naturalistic structure. If something is not physical, it is considered wrong, and if we can't test it scientifically through the scientific method, people often disbelieve that it is real or true. There needs to be some sort of empirical, tangible, verifiable evidence to assert that something is true.

However, people who hold that view, including many of your neighbors, family members, co-workers, and friends, who adhere to a naturalistic perspective and are skeptical about anything supernatural, do not fully adhere to the idea that anything not verifiable by observation or scientific testing is not real. Why do we say that? Because they believe in love. You cannot verify love with empiricism. They believe in human dignity, yet you cannot verify the value of a human being with verifiable empiricism.

There are many things that cannot be tested that we hold to in a very strong way, such as beauty, morality, and ethical judgments. You cannot make an ethical judgment if you are a pure naturalist and do not believe that anything outside of what can be proved empirically is true.

Make ethical judgments, and yet they make ethical judgments all day long. Value judgments, empiricism cannot answer the questions of truth, morality, beauty, love, and dignity. All those things are a problem for pure empiricism, so they believe in things that are outside of the empirical purview.

Now, here's the thing: whether you have a first-century Gnostic view or a twenty-first-century naturalistic worldview, according to John, those both may very well be counterfeits, and counterfeits can be incredibly dangerous.

What was the first-century counterfeit? The first-century counterfeit said everything physical is evil; therefore, Jesus did not come in the flesh. That was the first-century counterfeit. What's the problem with that? Well, if Jesus did not come in the flesh, then his death on the cross is insufficient to deal with your sin and my sin. So, Jesus becoming a man is really important. But the first-century counterfeit said everything physical is evil; therefore, Jesus did not come in the flesh.

The twenty-first-century counterfeit says everything is physical; therefore, Jesus is not God. What's the problem with that? If Jesus is not God, he does not have the sufficient power to save us. You can see that both counterfeits are dangerous because they lead to a wrong understanding of who Jesus is, and that wrong understanding could be catastrophic. It could be really dangerous.

Additionally, as revealed by John in this letter, both counterfeit worldviews—this is really important—both counterfeit worldviews, the first-century and the twenty-first-century, are spiritually derived. What does that mean? It means that they both originate from a spiritual source. Now, that really trips the circuits of twenty-first-century Westerners who don't believe in the metaphysical. They say, "No, that can't possibly be."

This may seem strange to you, that these worldviews originate from another spirit, but it begs the question: where do your thoughts come from? Have you thought about where?

Your thoughts come from various sources. Sometimes people say things like, "Well, the thought came to me." We talk like that because we're not exactly sure where our thoughts come from. The immediate response might be, "Well, I just came up with it." But are you really so sure about that? It's similar to how you just came up with the dreams you dreamt last night.

Consciousness is a significant and complex issue for empiricists. They struggle to describe where consciousness originates. Philosophers have been attempting to tackle this question for centuries, and scientists are now trying to address it, especially in neurology research. They suggest that we have a hundred billion neurons in our brains, and as a result of all these cores of thought and chemical reactions, that's where thought comes from.

Yet, you can sit down and have this experience—I've had it too—where you're trying to figure something out, reasoning through a problem, and you can't find the answer. Perhaps you've wrestled with this thought for an entire day, and then you go to sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night and suddenly think, "Boom! I have the answer!" Where did that come from? According to the way the Scriptures reveal things, it came from another source.

Now, that might be incredibly frightening to you, but that's what the Christian worldview suggests: it came from a source outside of you. John is promoting the concept that ideas, which are the manifestation of thoughts, ideologies, and worldviews, originate from a spiritual source. We can't trust every spiritual source because deceiving spirits are in the world.

Point number two: I cannot trust every spirit. John describes this by stating that many false prophets have gone into the world. So, what is a false prophet? It is a proponent of a false ideology. I want to suggest that we have many modern-day prophets who are advocates of false ideologies. Where did that ideology come from? John says it came from a spiritual source. There are many false prophets in the world, and where do they get their ideas? They come from a spiritual source—ideas professed by false prophets or ideas that originated from spiritual influences.

Sources, and though I don't have enough time to get into it today, maybe a study for another day, the primary objective as revealed by Scripture is confusion and disorientation. The primary objective of these false spirits is to ensure that people who are separated from their Creator will not be brought into connection with Him or with one another. These false spirits exist in the world to bring confusion and disorientation.

Think about the confusion and disorientation of our culture because of ideology. It seems like these false spirits are doing a pretty good job. Therefore, he says, do not be deceived by counterfeit ideologies from false spirits. The Christian must test the spirits to see whether they are of God. Thankfully, John provides guidance on this in 1 John 4:2. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

John gives us the spiritual test. Point number three: the Spirit of Truth confesses the incarnation of Christ. You may ask, is it really that easy? According to John, the Spirit of Truth confesses the Incarnation. What does that mean? It means that God, who exists outside of the cosmos because He is separate from it, created and spoke the cosmos into existence. That God came into the cosmos in the man Jesus Christ.

This is the test. It seems radically simple, but is that really the truth? By stating this, John again gives us a stark contrast: either there is a spirit of truth or there is a spirit of error. There is the Spirit of God and there is the spirit of Antichrist. It is either/or; there is no fuzzy gray murky middle.

It's these kinds of stark contrasts that make Americans really uncomfortable. We have to make a category statement, and there's discerning and discrimination that takes place. These are major problems for 21st-century Westerners.

The Spirit of God, the spirit of error, the spirit of truth, and the Antichrist are all present in this discussion. The question is, do you believe that Jesus Christ is God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ, God, came to the earth? If not, then immediately John says that is of the spirit of error, that is of the spirit of the Antichrist. People might think, "I can't possibly say such a thing," because it makes them really uncomfortable.

Now, as a sidenote, I think it's important to make this clarification: if someone does not confess this fundamental axiom—that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh—it doesn't mean that everything they profess is false. The disbeliever who does not believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh can, by looking at the cosmos, come to right conclusions about things related to science, technology, medicine, and various other subjects. We can arrive at correct conclusions, and we see that this is happening.

However, as it relates to conclusions about fundamental reality—the deeper issues such as ultimate reality, values, morality, purpose, identity, origin, and destiny—everything they come up with needs to be suspect. Our culture is possessed by a pathological ideology, and we see the effects of it.

Jesus said, and this is really important, that "wisdom is justified by her children." It's a very pragmatic statement. What it means is you will know the value of an idea by what it produces. This is crucial because I believe there is a pathological ideology from which John is warning us.

Another spirit, which is anti-Christ and anti-God, has possessed our culture. It exists on many different levels and has various ways in which it is constructed. Ultimately, it comes down to this: this pathological ideology has been teaching for many decades.

What is our origin? Well, it is random chance and mutation over billions of years. What is our destiny? The best you can hope for is that you spread along your DNA, but you are going to die and just be absorbed into the ground one day. That's it. You are here for 70 or 80 years. The best you can hope for is maybe to spread along your DNA and come up with something that helps the human race.

Then, what is my identity? You are just the highest form of animal, and we are not even sure that you are the highest form of animal because dolphins have bigger brains and they might be better than us.

What about my purpose and meaning? You have to come up with your own purpose; you have to find some of your own sustaining meaning because there is no personal God who is directing that.

What about morality? What is right and wrong? We are not even really sure about that. That is the postmodern view: who can even say what is right and wrong? It is your opinion.

So, what do you end up with? You end up with a hopeless nihilism that produces outcomes. Wisdom is justified by her children. Look at things like Gilroy, California, and El Paso, Texas.

Fascinatingly, Friedrich Nietzsche, who most people remember according to a certain ideology, famously stated that God is dead—the death of God. I have recommended it before: go read Nietzsche's "The Madman." It will take you less than five minutes; it is only about eight paragraphs. In it, he gives the parable of the madman who goes into the street saying, "God is dead, and we have killed him. What shall become of us, the murderers of God? How shall we clean up the blood?"

Nietzsche proposed the idea that we have basically annihilated God, and he predicted that the 20th century would be the bloodiest century in all centuries. Why? Because we have no accountability morally speaking, and we have no ultimate purpose or meaning. What do we see from the 20th century? That is exactly what it is. As for the 21st century, who knows where it could go? We are still at the beginning of this whole thing, but wisdom is justified by her children, and so we should be suspect.

Of ideologies that don't accord with the truth of who God is and the nature of God, if it does not align with the truth of the nature of God, it will lead in a different direction, and the outcomes are not good. This does not mean that every person who holds this ideology, the Christian faith, or adheres to this view will always do perfect good things. We can look throughout church history and see that people have done bad things in the name of Jesus. Yes, but they were always in conflict with the core teaching of the Scriptures.

When someone does something horrible and vile, and they are a naturalistic materialist, it is not in conflict with their worldview. That is the frightening thing. When someone takes an AK-47 and shoots 20 people, it is not in conflict with the worldview of nihilism. It would be in conflict with the worldview of the Scriptures. It comes down to this: Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. It relates to the nature of Christ, who is God.

The test that John gives answers the first-century counterfeit, the twenty-first-century counterfeit, and I would say every counterfeit in between. The first-century counterfeit was the belief that everything physical is evil; therefore, Jesus did not come in the flesh. The twenty-first-century counterfeit asserts that everything is physical; therefore, Jesus is not God. This is the test by which we can judge a worldview, whether it is of the Spirit of Truth or the spirit of error.

By this, you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of Antichrist. John does something that he repeatedly does; he gives us the positive and negative declaration of a truth to emphasize its importance.

So here’s the test: it comes in three parts. Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. What does that mean? Jesus Christ—well, the very name is important. Some people misunderstand and think that Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name. Jesus is his name, and Christ is his title or office. Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation" or "God is the Savior," and Christ means that this one, Jesus of Nazareth, who bears this name, is that Savior. He is the one that the prophets of old predicted. Just those two words, Jesus Christ, tell us so much.

Jesus Christ has come, and this word has come as well. This is difficult for translators. Some of you may have another English translation of the Bible that says "is come" and not "has come." The reason for the difference between my version, the New King James Version, and perhaps the one you are looking at is because of the way the word is given in the present perfect in the original Greek. It's hard for translators because it can imply both that He has come at a specific point in time in the past and that He is the coming one, which is a whole other study for another day.

At the very least, it implies that He came from somewhere else. Where? Well, Jesus Himself proclaims in the Gospels, most notably in the Gospel of John, "I, the Son of Man, have come down from heaven." He has come from the spiritual realm. The Gnostics of the first and second centuries would say, "Okay, we're fine with that," but they would argue that He didn't come in the flesh. However, John says, "No, that's not the case. Jesus Christ has come in the flesh."

The Gnostic view of the second century had two differing opinions about the nature of Jesus. One view was that He was just a man, but a spirit of Christ came upon Him at His baptism and left just before He died on the cross. They believed He wasn't really fully God and fully man. That was one Gnostic view. John counters this by affirming that He came in the flesh, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

The other Gnostic view was what is called Docetism, which basically means that He just appeared to be human but was actually just an apparition, a spirit. John again refutes this by stating that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This truth destroys both the ancient and the modern counterfeit Jesus. He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man, which means His death on the cross is the sufficient sacrifice to atone for our sin. As God, He has the ability and the power to save us.

Everyone who does not hold to this confession is of another spirit. John says this is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

We should not be surprised by or afraid.

There is an antichrist spirit in the world, and I think there are two reactions that Christians sometimes encounter when they come to this realization. Either they are surprised by it, or they are afraid of it. John says not to be surprised by this. Why not? He explains that you have already heard that the antichrist spirit was coming, and it is already here.

John also says not to be afraid of it. Why? Look at verse 4 of 1 John 4: "You, if you are a follower of Jesus, are of God, little children, and have overcome them." Who are "them"? They are those in the world who are of a different spirit, the spirit of antichrist. You have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Those who are of the world speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God; he who knows God hears us, and he who does not know God does not hear us. By this, we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. In the world, there are deceiving spirits, according to the revelation of Scripture—untrustworthy antichrist spirits that motivate false worldviews and ideologies, as well as false philosophies by teachers and prophets who profess false things.

We shouldn't be surprised by this, and we shouldn't be afraid of it. The Spirit in us makes us overcomers by His mighty power. John says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them." Would you underline the words "have overcome"? John does not say, "You are of God, little children, and hopefully you will overcome them." He does not express concern; instead, he confidently states that you have overcome them. This is in the perfect tense, meaning it is a completed event.

What is the probability of little children overcoming this great antichrist spirit that is opposed to God?

There is absolutely no probability that a little child can overcome the challenges they face, but greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. We overcome not by our strength, but by the working of the Spirit of God in us. The word "overcome" means to prevail, to conquer, to vanquish, and it is a completed action. Romans 8:37 says that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Because of what He has accomplished by His love, we are more than overcomers.

So, what then is the place, the position of the Christian in a world in conflict with an opposing spirit? This is an important question. I would suggest, based on the Scriptures, that our place as Christians—if you are a follower of Christ and have the Spirit of God dwelling in you—is to be lights in a dark world, bearing the truth of God to those who have believed a lie. Our purpose is to lead them to the knowledge of the truth and set them free by Him.

That is why God placed you in the neighborhood you live in, on the school campus you attend, in the office building where you work, on the construction site, and in the family you are a part of. Wherever He has placed you, He has called you to be a light, bearing witness to the truth of God. This is so that those who have believed a lie, which will lead them to destruction, can come to the knowledge of the truth and be set free.

We do not go out to oppose the spirit and fight against it, as some Dominion theology proponents suggest. Instead, we proclaim the gospel, for the gospel is that which brings truth to those who have believed a lie. Once upon a time, you believed a lie and were in darkness, but now He has given you light, mercy, grace, and truth to be set free.

The value of this truth can be seen in the outcomes it brings. I suggest to you that everywhere the gospel has gone, it has set people free. You would not be here today if you had not been set free by it. In just a few minutes, we are going to leave here and head to our mission field: San Diego County, with 3.2 million people and 110 different languages.

Spoken many different worldviews, every single one of those ideologies is spiritually motivated. If it does not align with the reality of who Jesus is, then it is of the spirit of error. That is a hard thing to say because it might offend somebody, but the gospel is an offense to those who are perishing. There is no better thing than to set up a stumbling block for someone who is running headlong towards a cliff, so that they would know the truth and be set free. Amen.

Do you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, we need Your Spirit. We need Your ability to be witnesses of You here in this place that we live. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from You. You are the one who enables us to be ministers and servants of the gospel.

I pray, God, that You would give Your church, us, Your enabling power to be witnesses of Your grace to this world. Lord, this world is possessed by ideologies that are pathological; they lead to confusion, disorientation, and death. They do not result in abundant life here or in eternity. I pray that we would be able to share the truth of the grace of the gospel so that others would know this abundant life that we have through truth, grace, liberty, and mercy. God, enable us to be witnesses of this in this world.

As we are standing here this morning, it may be that you recognize that you've been possessed by an ideology that does not align with this and has been leading you in the wrong direction. I want you to know that Jesus demonstrated His love for you on the cross. He desires for you to come to know Him and to experience forgiveness, grace, and abundant life through the gospel. You can have that forgiveness and grace today by receiving Christ as your Lord and Savior, simply by confessing Him and asking Him to come into your life. I want to lead...

If that's you this morning and you would like to receive that grace, as we're in a moment of prayer, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see it? Is there anyone here this morning who would like to receive that grace? God bless you, I see you over here on my right. Is there anyone else? Lift up your hand. I see you there in the back. God bless you.

If you need the forgiving grace of God, just lift your hand up. If that's you, would you just follow along with me in a very simple prayer? Prayer is simply talking to God. You can repeat this after me if you'd like:

"Dear Jesus, I recognize my need for You. I pray that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You would help me to follow You by faith in Jesus."